Welcoming
by Ethan Demas
Summary: This is a little follow-up piece to SapphireSwimings's Story Putting Out The Welcome Mat. It follows up to where the brothers see Danny in his room after the accident.


**This is a little piece I've been working on ever since Putting Out The Welcome Mat from SapphireSwimming came out. My idea is that this follows up that one shot as another one shot.**

Hours had passed since they had left the garage and Dean hadn't uttered a single word, he hadn't moved at all but you could see he was thinking. He's thoughts were on the young boy he often thought of as his youngest sibling, or he used to... He didn't know what to do now… He wanted to help Danny pass on, but some selfish part of him didn't want the boy to leave him. Danny was kind hearted, gentle, compassionate and only wanted to help those around him. Dean remembered the one night he had a nightmare and woke up Danny by accident, the boy had stayed with him to protect him from the bogey man.

He had run thru a lot of emotions now, but there was one he clung to. The only emotion his mind could bring out of him was bubbling under his calm surface, the emotion was anger and it was all directed at a single person. The person who had taken away from the little they had left, Jack Fenton. What he felt paralyzed his body, but sent his mind racing thinking of all the possible ways he could murder the man responsible for this. His job was to protect humans from evil, but considering what that man did, did he even still count as a human? Was Jack worth the trouble? Dean shook his head, no Jack Fenton was worth nothing.

Opening a God forsaken portal to another dimension at the cost of one's own son! The only thing Dean wanted to do was beat up the fool of a man, however he realized that before he could do any of this, he would have to put Danny to rest. Have the kid move on, to wherever ghosts go when they did. He closed his eyes to keep the tears from escaping, why Danny? He had also realized that he hadn't told Sam anything yet, but how do you tell somebody that one of his childhood friends has died a death he didn't even wish upon the most demons. Danny was one of the anchors to the normalcy he so desperately clung to, but now he is gone. He didn't even know if he himself had completely accepted the fact that Danny was caught in an electrical current strong enough to vaporize a human body. He opened his eyes just staring at his phone, the violently dialled number still visible on screen.

He wasn't aware of where they were, but when the car came to a stop and bright neon light reflected off of his dashboard, he knew he was there. His heart sped up and the feeling of dread settled into his stomach as they approached the front door and knocked, yet this all instantly gave wave to unadulterated anger as the person responsible for it all opened up the door. He had to bite his fist not lash out at the man, he needed to find Danny.

"Dean! Sammy-boy! It's been a long time! Come inside, I've been waiting for your father, but I might as well show you too!" Jack said enthusiastically, oblivious to the green eyed man's murderous glare. "You can even stay the night! The guest room is open!"

Sam had taken note of the glint in Dean's eye when he saw the man, it was the same glint he had when he really hated a particular demon or monster. He hadn't seen it a lot, but for him to be watching the eldest Fenton with that glint meant something was seriously wrong. He knew he needed to get his enraged brother away from the man before he did something he will regret for the rest of his life.

"We'll be right there mister Fenton, I just need to talk to my brother for a minute." Sam said

"Don't take too long! You might miss something life changing!" Jack called as he went down to the basement.

Dean growled as the Fenton said those words, and he looked ready to kill. Sam quickly shoved Dean into the guest room and closed the door behind him, locking it before he turned around to face his murderous brother.

"What's wrong with you Dean? It looked like you wanted to rip mister Fenton to shreds then burn him piece by piece."

"I'd rather not TELL you what's wrong. I want you to listen." He called the voice mail again and gave Sam the phone.

Sam shrugged and listens to the voicemail, instantly recognizing the voice as Danny's, but it sounded off somehow. As the taller brother continued to listen, his eyes grew in size and became misty, his jaw clenching. Dean could only close his eyes and try not to think of the fear and hurt in Danny's voice. He looked at Sam again, and saw his jaw set as he gnawed on his teeth. Hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn, was proven wrong by the look on Sam's face. Dean knew Sam was much more hurt than he was, Danny had been his only friend, even thou he was four years older at the time. Sam now had that too ripped away from him, like everything that was already snatched from his grasp.

Sam's face was red with utter rage and he was shaking slightly. He snapped the phone shut and stiffly handed it back to his brother. 'Life changing my fucking ass! That abomination is the reason his first friend is dead!'

"We need to put Danny to rest, he doesn't belong here anymore." Sam said, his voice cracking near the end, and his eyes brimming with tears.

Dean walked over to his brother and gave him a hug, it was the only thing he could do. He was completely powerless to change the events that had already taken place.

"I'm sorry Sammy..."

"I swear I'm going to destroy that portal for Danny, it's the least we could do."

"First we need to find him."

Sam nodded and unlocked the door, before walking up the stairs towards where Danny's room used to be. From the space rocket on the door he knew it was his friend's room, well he guessed it's Danny's haunt now. He knocked on the door, his heart started to race and he began sweating.

_Doef-daf_

_Doef-daf…doef-daf_

_Doef-daf…doef-daf__…__Doef-daf…doef-daf_

His heart beat faster and faster, drowning out the sounds around him and his hand slightly trembling as he reached for the door. Time seemed to slow done as the thoughts raced thru his mind.' _How are they going to do this? What if he becomes vengeful?'_ Slowly the door creaked open, and they saw the form of a boy on the bed. His room was neat, except for a pile of clothes in the one corner and his desk. Blue with rockets and all sorts of space posters and souvenirs were visible around his room. The brothers stepped in the dark room, the only light source a lava-lamp Sam had bought him for Christmas a year ago. They took a deep breath and approached him, expecting to find a hideous burn or blackened skin on the ghost of their friend.

"Danny?" Sam asked cautiously

"Hm?" Came the muffled reply.

"Danny, please look at us." Dean pleaded.

The boy looked up, his arctic blue eyes looked slightly glazed over, but they were filled with emotion. The first thing they noticed when they neared him was the fact that there was no marks on him indicating where he had be struck by the electricity in the portal. His skin seemed flawless and perfectly clear, abnormally so for a teenager. Dean noticed that even his hear seemed much more nourished and taken care of, but there was something off about it. His hair swayed slightly in a manner that made it look like he was underwater, but if you weren't looking for it you would have missed it.

"Sam... Dean... Y-you got my mes-sage?" He asked in a slightly quivering and cracked voice.

They nodded, looking at him with stern, but solemn expressions. Danny didn't like that look one bit, but it brought him a step closer to the truth, yet taking him two steps back.

"Y-y-you can help me right? You can fix everything right?" He asked with hope shining in his eyes, but their grim faces made it vanish.

"We're sorry Danny. We can't help you like you want us to, but we can help you move on." Sam said sincerely.

He nodded glumly, the little ray of hope that he had, had vanished. He was dead, and there was nothing he could do about that.

"S-so how are we doing this?" He asked slowly.

They suddenly looked very conflicted about what to say, they didn't want to scare the kid any more than he already has been. Dean knew there was a small chance of his body still remaining, which meant that he as attached to something in the room or house. It might be something as small as hair or milk tooth that is anchoring his spirit to this dimension, but nonetheless he knew he had to ask.

With a sigh Dean asked "Danny, is your body somewhere around?"

Danny shook his head. "I-i don't know... The only thing that came out of the portal was me..."

"Oh..."

"Dean... Sam..."

"Yah?" they asked simultaneously

"Is it normal for a ghost to do this?" he asked as he slight his wrist, letting crimson liquid flow out of the cut and fall onto his white bed sheet.

"Danny! Why did you do that?!" Sam asked in a harsh whisper.

"I-i-i thought I was dead... So I cut myself."

Dean watched as his brother bandaged the wound, it gave him an idea, and epiphany would be a more accurate description of what he was thinking. He knew that he was treading in untested waters, it would be worth a shot thought if his theory was right. He slowly moved over to Danny and took his wright in between his thumb, index and middle fingers, feeling for a pulse. Dean knew that a ghost couldn't bleed, which meant something else was happening here.

Dean let out a breath, calming himself and letting him focus on finding the pulse of the boy in front of him. At first he felt nothing, but he was determined to wait for as long as necessary, he had to do this right, but then he felt it… It was slow, but powerful, each beat seemed to beat away the misery in his mind, replacing it with hope, but the fear remained firm. What did this mean for Danny? The first thing he at least needs to do was tell his little brother he wasn't dead, but as usual Sam had to jump in and be the hero.

"Danny, I don't think you're dead." Sam said as he was still busy with the wrist. "Well not really..."

"You can bleed, you have a heartbeat and you're warm. Ghosts may have physical manifestations, but they can't do any of that." Dean continued. "They leave their environment cold, but you don't do that. We don't know what happened to you Danny, but you're not dead."

"Then what am I?" He asked curiously, they could hear that he was slightly relieved, but still wary. They couldn't blame him at all, they were cautious of him now too. No demon could take that amount of electricity and survive, and no creature they came across could either. The Shtriga could probably, but then again, ectoplasm was not man made or godly, it was ghostly. So that…thing was also out of the question.

They were unsure of what to say, which made Danny nervous and scared. Unknown to the three, the new Halfa's power was strongly linked to his emotions and thoughts, and when his mind and body perceived the situation as threatening he transformed. His body light up in a brilliant white light as a ring of light surrounded him, the white energy flowed over his body, bathing him in ethereal energy and changing his body.

Sam and Dean watched in amazement as the twin rings of light turned their little brother into something else. It wasn't a ghost because they knew he had a pulse, but it wasn't human or demon or anything they had ever seen before. It was like he was a phantom, not truly being one thing while not truly being another, he was neither and he was both. They saw his clothes had changed into a revealing from fitting jumpsuit that showed the world EVERYTHING even things not meant to be seen in such vivid detail.

"A phantom…" Dean said slowly, a smile forming on his face as he said it. "It's always been your favourite game Danny, now you're really a phantom."

**Then the room exploded in a burst of bunny energy with easter egg guns and giant saberlike teeth. THE END… You know this last part was a joke right? BTW I am Afrikaans so the Doef-Daf thingy might be another sound, but hey it's fiction! Story is 2,138 words**


End file.
